NEWS FEATURE: Pope blesses newly restored facade of St. Peter’s Basilica

c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II gave his formal blessing Thursday (Sept. 30) to the newly restored facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, cleaned of the grime of centuries and returned to its original ocher and white splendor. In a gala ceremony televised live throughout Europe, the Roman Catholic pontiff […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II gave his formal blessing Thursday (Sept. 30) to the newly restored facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, cleaned of the grime of centuries and returned to its original ocher and white splendor.

In a gala ceremony televised live throughout Europe, the Roman Catholic pontiff said St. Peter’s, the largest church in Christendom, is now seen”in all the majestic solemnity”its 17th century architect, Carlo Maderno, intended.”The admiring gaze that we lift this evening to the architectural structure of the facade anticipates that of innumerable pilgrims, who will arrive here from every part of the world during Holy Year, which is now imminent,”the pope said.”They can relive the experience of the pilgrims of old enraptured before the magnificence and the solidity of the structure of this imposing basilica.” At a news conference earlier this week (Sept. 28), Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that if the Sistine Chapel is”the restoration of the century in frescoes,”the 22,960-foot-long (7,000-meter) facade”could be called the restoration of the century in stone.” A team of 150 scientists, technicians and restorers worked on the facade for 2 1/2 years with the Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI), Italy’s state-controlled oil and natural gas corporation, supplying high-tech expertise.


ENI also footed the $5.6 million (10 billion lire) bill, almost half of it for analysis of the facade’s surfaces of travertine, granite and marble, which were darkened and pitted by four centuries of grime and smog.

The restorers painted the main body of the facade a pale ocher, leaving the columns, window frames and the top level white. The loggia della benedizione, the central balcony from which popes deliver their Christmas and Easter messages to the city of Rome and the world, is now flanked by two short red columns and decorated with a green stripe.

The change from an entirely white facade pleased some critics but shocked others, who accused the restorers of playing”modern games.” Architectural historian Carlo Bertelli damned the work as”a restoration of innovation.” Not so, said Sandro Benedetti, a professor of architecture at Rome’s La Sapienza University, who served as the Vatican’s technical adviser.

Benedetti said color tracings found on hundreds of scrapings from the facade, manuscripts in the Vatican archives and an anonymous painting dated 1646 _ shortly after the work was completed _ all testify to the authenticity of the restoration.

In fact, he said, the Vatican has preserved records of payments to artisans and the purchase of paintbrushes in 1612″to use for the facade.” Benedetti said he was convinced that”color was a decisive element in the conception of this work,”with the ocher providing the contrast that accentuates the white travertine of the imposing columns.

Begun in the 16th century, the basilica stands on the site where St. Peter is believed to have been buried after he was martyred in the Emperor Nero’s circus. It took more than a century to complete and involved virtually all the great artists and architects of the time, including Bramante, Michelangelo, Rafael and Bernini, in the design and decoration.

ENI began the restoration project by assembling an exhaustive database.

The technique of photogrammetry, borrowed from its oil and gas fields, created a three-dimensional computerized model of the facade and in the process revealed that it slopes 46 centimeters to the left when viewed from the front.


High-frequency radar waves, X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, optical microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis of samples helped to assess deterioration and chemical-physical pollution.

Georadar technology allowed technicians to survey 4,000 square meters of the facade at a depth of up to three meters, uncovering layers of color dating back to its construction.

Dirt was removed by the so-called Jos technology, spraying jets of water, air and travertine dust onto the surface at an angle to soften the impact on the stone.

Restorers used specially designed stucco to treat more than 50,000 small cracks, dents and openings.

Technicians also monitored environmental pollution 24 hours a day for a total of 150 days between March 1997 and February 1998 to determine what precautions will be needed to safeguard St. Peter’s in the future.

They found that St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding colonnade protect the basilica from the effects of normal traffic but not from the diesel fumes emitted by the armies of tourist buses that descend on the area daily.


Vittorio Mincato, managing director of ENI, said this and other information collected in the database for the restoration should prove”important not only for the fabric (of St. Peter’s) but also for the entire sector of cultural heritage and for the international scientific community.” Renato Ruggiero, chairman of ENI and former head of the World Trade Organization, called the restoration”an exemplary conservative intervention,”which repaired damage to the facade but left on the stone”the sign of time.” DEA END POLK

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